Moved by pro

to the aggravation of the disappointment. tests against the prohibition, he consented to the Orangemen going as far as Warren Point, whence, with the aid of fieldglasses, they might catch glimpses of the Catholics waiting for them at Rostrevor. Though well-meant, this was a concession almost inhuman in its ingenious cruelty. It was like spreading a toothsome banquet before a hungry tiger, taking care that the meal should be set outside the impassable bars of his cage.

Johnston of Ballykilbeg, depressed at this extraordinary conduct on the part of a Government he had loyally supported, immediately left for Ireland to take part in the Downpatrick celebration of the happy day. In the course of the ceremony he caught a chill, and exactly a week after he left the House of Commons in his usual health the blinds were drawn down at Ballykilbeg, and there was a vacancy in the representation of West Belfast.

Inspector of

Mr. Johnston was a curious compound of the fanatic and the man of tender heart. I do not know whether in his long career, crowned with the rank of Grand Master of Grand Black Chapter of Ireland, he Fisheries. ever really, overtly or covertly, heaved half a brick at a Papist; whether, indeed, he ever shouted the watchword of militant Orangeism which consigns the Holy Father to eternal perdition. One never knows what unexpected things a man may do in moments of excitement. Out of Belfast Johnston of Ballykilbeg was the mildest-mannered man that ever wore an orange scarf. The spectacle of Irish Nationalist members seated opposite him, putting questions designed to belittle the memory of William III. and extol the parish priest, occasionally led him into truculent observations. He had a way of supplementing such inquiries by others designed to show matters in quite another light. They involved aspersions at least equalled in malignity to the question on the paper. But no one seemed a penny the worse. The Irish members boisterously cheered him. The Chief Secretary got out of the difficulty by observing that he had "no information on the point mentioned by my hon. friend," and

then turned to read the written answer to the question on the paper provided for him by the Irish Office.

For one of his kindly disposition, Johnston of Ballykilbeg's life was marked by turmoil. He emerged from obscurity in the arms of the police, who arrested him, flagrante delicto, taking part in a proscribed Orange procession. That was quite enough for the people of Belfast. They straightway elected him their member, and through the prison door Mr. Johnston entered the portals of the House of Commons. After he had been in the House ten years Disraeli, who loved a joke and was not to be barred off enjoyment by ordinary considerations, made him Inspector of Fisheries. At the date when he was inducted in his important office the only acquaintance with fisheries or fish Johnston of Ballykilbeg boasted was that acquired at the breakfast-table, where was served the homely haddock or the frisky fresh herring. But he could learn, and the salary was £800

a year.

Unfortunately, after he had served for seven years and was really beginning to master the difference between flyfishing and gathering in the teeming multitude of the deep in a net, he strayed into a meeting of the General Synod of the Church of Ireland. A speech made by one of the authorities stirred his blood. Up he got and delivered an oration revolutionary in its tendencies, almost blood-thirsty in its aspirations. Certainly it was incongruous on the part of one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Irish Fisheries. Notice was called to the tirade in the House of Commons, with the result that Earl Spencer, then Lord Lieutenant, was obliged to dismiss the eloquent Inspector. South Belfast retorted by electing him its member, and Johnston of Ballykilbeg returned in triumph to the House of Commons.

In the very last speech he delivered, within ten days of his sudden cutting off, he alluded to the dismissal of 1885. The event, he said, followed on a question put by Mr. Tim Healy, who he believed had ever since regretted his interposition. "Hear, hear!" cried Tim, heartily. It was a happy accident that, in what chanced to be his last speech in an assembly

where he took his seat thirty-four years ago, there should have been sounded this truce with his ancient foes in politics and religion. The warfare was, in truth, mimic. The Irish Nationalist members respected the rugged eccentricity of Johnston of Ballykilbeg, and he had a sneaking affection for them.

It was a mark of his indomitable character, in small things as in great, that he was thrice married.

CHAPTER XLVII

NOVEMBER

GENTLEMEN of England who sit at home at ease reading their morning paper containing columns of Parliamentary The Journals of report, little reck of another record of Parlia

the House. mentary proceedings painstakingly compiled, in due time stoutly bound, and stored in the Palace of Westminster. These are the Journals of the House of Commons, to-day edited by the Clerks of the Table as they were by their predecessors three hundred years ago. Lining the long corridor of the House of Commons, which cuts across the building from the Lobby where the bust of Cromwell surveys the scene to the door of the office of the Speaker's Secretary, the calf-bound volumes stand row on row chronicling in severely simple style the history of England. Beginning long before morning newspapers were established, holding the field at a time when the reporting of debates in Parliament was a criminal offence, these musty volumes tell the tale of the Sessions in unbroken continuity. Rarely opened, their existence known only to comparatively few, they plod along adding yearly to their bulk, scrupulously preserving in this twentieth century the manner of writing and of printing observed in the seventeenth.

Here is a transcript, capital letters and italics duly preserved, of record of a historic event under date Wednesday, 23rd January 1901: "IT having pleased Almighty God to take to His mercy our late Most Gracious Sovereign

Lady Queen Victoria of blessed memory, who departed this life yesterday between the hours of Six and The King's Seven of the clock in the evening, at Osborne Accession. House, in the Isle of Wight; and Her late Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, and others, having met this day at Saint James's Palace, and having directed that His Royal Highness Albert Edward Prince of Wales be proclaimed King To-morrow at Nine of the clock, by the Style and Title of Edward the Seventh: At Four of the clock the House met pursuant to the

Statute made in the Sixth year of the reign of Her late Majesty Queen Anne, intituled, 'An Act for the Security of Her Majesty's Person and Government, and of the Succession to the Crown of Great Britain in the Protestant Line.' And Mr. Speaker and several other Members (Francis Broxholm Grey Jenkinson, Esquire, C.B., and Arthur William Nicholson, Esquire, the Clerks Assistant, and the other Clerks attending according to their duty) came into the House, whereupon Mr. Speaker first alone, standing upon the upper step of the Chair, took and subscribed the Oath required by Law. Then several Members took and subscribed the Oath; and several Members made and subscribed the Affirmation required by Law."

With the exception of one line this is, with variation of date and proper name, a copy of the entry recording the death of British Sovereigns since the Restoration. An innovation appears in the concluding line, where the fact that several members made affirmation instead of taking the Oath is recorded.

In the Thousand and One Nights, each chapter con